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Yeah, I would just mess around with it. I've tried mineral, tung, walnut, and orange oil along with bees wax and carnauba. With plain ho wood handles, the mineral oil doesn't give any color really, but orange and especially tung will give a little bit of color. Before doing the oil thing though, I would recommend sanding the handles down too. Nothing like a nice smooth, oiled handle

Anyone use Tru-oil? It contains tung oil, mineral oil and a few other things. What i like about it is after sanding and a few coats of that, it seals the surface of the wood as the tung oil hardens. Don't use veggie oils! They go rancid after a month or so!...don't ask how i know....

Anyone use Tru-oil? It contains tung oil, mineral oil and a few other things. What i like about it is after sanding and a few coats of that, it seals the surface of the wood as the tung oil hardens. Don't use veggie oils! They go rancid after a month or so!...don't ask how i know....

I'm not sure how much concern there is, but most oils use heavy metals to hasten their drying time. The only oils I use are boiled linseed oil and walnut, though truth be told, they take a long while to dry.

Also, on another forum when I suggested oiling ho handles I was told that it would ruin the handle. Reason being that Ho is used because when it gets wet the grain rises improving grip on the knife, which does make sense if you use knives with wet hands- thinking mainly of Deba

I wanted to make a batch of mineral oil and beeswax, what is a good ratio?

I just stick beeswax and some mineral oil in the microwave and basically melt it together. The beeswax won't penetrate a whole lot so if you wash your handles a lot, you'd use more mineral oil. Otherwise, you can use almost straight beeswax. I finish with something like 20-30% beeswax but it varies.

Also, on another forum when I suggested oiling ho handles I was told that it would ruin the handle. Reason being that Ho is used because when it gets wet the grain rises improving grip on the knife, which does make sense if you use knives with wet hands- thinking mainly of Deba

Interesting, but that's no fun. Then you can't play with oils and stuff I've never had problems gripping my handles. Maybe pro cooks have wet hand a lot but because I always have a rag handy for wiping, I almost never have really wet and slippery hands.

Also, on another forum when I suggested oiling ho handles I was told that it would ruin the handle. Reason being that Ho is used because when it gets wet the grain rises improving grip on the knife, which does make sense if you use knives with wet hands- thinking mainly of Deba

Most wood does that. After sanding down a handle, I polish it up to a nice grit, clean it, and spritz it, and leave it to air dry, and buff it again. Gets silky smooth...the kinda thing you rub on your upper lip to feel it. Ok well I do that.

I just stick beeswax and some mineral oil in the microwave and basically melt it together. The beeswax won't penetrate a whole lot so if you wash your handles a lot, you'd use more mineral oil. Otherwise, you can use almost straight beeswax. I finish with something like 20-30% beeswax but it varies.

after mixing in a container, I put it it is a dish with just recently boiled water and stir the "cocktail" and use it when it is warm.. When it cools it usually becomes pasty or less viscous. The container shld have a lid so that the cocktail can be used for the next round...